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Nuclear Fatwa and Iranian Proliferation
Source: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Here is a ‘must read’ for anyone even remotely interested in the Iranian nuclear project and its religious aspects. Michael Eisenstadt and Mehdi Khalaji have now released their papers on “Religious Ideologies, Political Doctrines, and Iran’s Nuclear Decision-making” and “Shiite Jurisprudence, Political Expediency, and Nuclear Weapons” respectively. Both papers are published in WINEP’s Policy Focus #15 entitled: “Nuclear Fatwa: Religion and Politics in Iran’s Proliferation Strategy.” That’s what the WashingtonInstitute for Near East…
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Interactive Guide to the ‘Saudi Eleven’
Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Middle East Programme) has just released a very insightful interactive guide to the ‘Saudi Eleven’ – a group of Saudi extremists that share a very similar story. They were all detained in Guantanamo Bay, upon repatriation to Saudi Arabia underwent rehabilitation in the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Care and Counselling (a Saudi counter-radicalisation and counter-terrorism facility outside of Riyadh), subsequently fled to Yemen and joined the Al Qaeda in the…
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Israel fears its own Jewish terrorism
“We need to erase the idea of a Palestinian state from people’s minds and convince the world that Islam is a danger,” said Michael Ben-Ari, a right-wing politician and settler. Following reports from Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence agency, fears about the resurgent Jewish terrorism emerged. News about the Palestinian plan to seek a UN recognition of their statehood in New York on Sept 20, have further exacerbated the situation and the Israeli authorities have finally recognised a relative spike in…
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RUSI Palestinian Statehood Conference
As the Palestinians strive to establish a UN recognition of their statehood later this month, RUSI hosted an international conference on the issue. A number of people directly involved in the Middle Eastern Peace Process attended the event, including: Congressman Robert Wexler, Dr Nabil Shaath, Elliott Abrams, Maj Gen (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, Ambassador Dore Gold, Dr Saeb Erekat, Brig Gen Yossi Kupperwasser, Ambassador Manuel Hassassian, and Dr Hussein Agha. And here is RUSI’s description of the event: “The Royal United…
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Shooting in Bahrain
This is a horrendously painful clip that I’ve found recently picturing a wounded protestor being shot at close range in Bahrain.
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Qatar 2022 – First stadiums
This is a pretty amazing video of the first five football stadiums soon to be built for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Have a peak at the future games in Doha… Introducing Qatar 2022’s First Five Stadiums from Doha Luxury on Vimeo.
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The U.S.-Saudi Dilemma: Iran’s Reshaping of Persian Gulf Politics
By Reva Bhalla, STRATFOR Something extraordinary, albeit not unexpected, is happening in the Persian Gulf region. The United States, lacking a coherent strategy to deal with Iran and too distracted to develop one, is struggling to navigate Iraq’s fractious political landscape in search of a deal that would allow Washington to keep a meaningful military presence in the country beyond the end-of-2011 deadline stipulated by the current Status of Forces Agreement. At the same time, Saudi Arabia, dubious of U.S. capabilities and…
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Qatar – Modernity’s Neopatrimonial Edition?
Gulf Cooperation Council Meeting. by Matthew Machowski The widespread ‘rentier mentality’ in the Gulf has undoubtedly led to a massive popular socio-economic advancement that not only has affected a wide variety of aspects of life in Qatar,[1] but also has “enabled the state to structure existing groups into a patron–client order,” as advanced by Krause.[2] Rentierism has further strengthened the traditional patrimonial institutions of governance, typically prevalent in the pre-oil era Qatar.[3] She further notes that the modern Qatari state…
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Islam – Democracy’s Dilemma?
While the recent Arab Spring uprisings toppled both the Tunisian President Ben Ali and the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, other authoritarian leaders are clinging to power in Libya, Syria and Yemen. Although these developments created a considerable democratic momentum in the region not much has yet been achieved, as full, stable, and secure democracies are still nowhere in sight. Of all the challenges facing democracy in the world. perhaps, the greatest yet lies in the Islamic world, where only a handful of…
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Bahrain Demolishes Shia Mosques
Map of demolished / damaged Shia mosques in Bahrain. The unrest in Bahrain has caused many casualties but little international outrage. Just yesterday, the courts in Manama sentenced a few of the protestors to life imprisonment for their opposition to the unpopular Al Khalifa regime and their involvement in popular protest. Perhaps the most telling is, however, that one person was in fact sentenced in absentia for crimes that he allegedly committed from a distance having lived in London for…